Troy Ave’s Favorite New York City Songs From Each Borough

Jay Z—”Hard Knock Life”That shit was just so ill. I used to DJ by default because my step pops was mad into music, and he bought a whole DJ set, and I used to play it all the time. I remember we went down to Beat Street (Records) and bought it, and I was like, “Damn, this shit is so crazy.” He had the video out for “Can I Get A” with Ja Rule at the time, and there was just so many dope records on (Vol 2…Hard Knock Life). The whole Annie sample was crazy. I was just amazed at that.

Notorious B.I.G.—”One More Chance”(The video) was in Brooklyn and was at a house party—that shit was everything back in the day. Its [lyrics are] not too druggie, but he’s touching on it. There’s a bunch of stuff he’s saying that I didn’t get, but on it he says, “I stay Coogi down to the socks,” and I went out and bought a pair of Coogi socks. That was like a [softer] song of Biggie’s, but it was still dope. The only thing [soft] about it was the beat and the chick singing on the hook, but Biggie was still talking that shit.